I just can't quit you....

Sitting here in the airport, I'm looking at one guy who's reading a fantasy baseball magazine and another guy who's sitting here, with his son, reading a book on the fundamentals of hitting. He and his son are reading the book together, the kid asking questions and getting neat answers. They're decked out in Yankee gear, looking as if they're heading home from a spring training vacation, and every now and then the dad will get up and demonstrate some aspect of the swing.

Makes me miss my own boys, who are still too young for such lessons and who will be sleeping when I get home, but it also gets me pretty fired up. The baseball season begins Tuesday in Tokyo with a game between the Red Sox and Oakland. Then everybody else opens up a week from tomorrow.

That's right. Less than a week to go until real, live baseball that counts. Did that sneak up on anybody else?

Nothing gets me more fired up. I swear, to this day, I still watch "The Natural" the night before Opening Day every year. I may get up at 6:00 in the morning Tuesday just to watch the Sox and A's play. (Who am I kidding? I have a two-year-old and a four-year-old. I may very well get up at 6:00 in the morning anyway.)

If I do, maybe I'll even sneak in on Eddie's blog and post some observations. Ssshhh....

I'll be working on preseason predictions this week for next Sunday's paper. Can't give anything away, but trust me when I tell you I'm anticipating solid seasons from both NY teams. I'd love to hear from anybody who has any thoughts that might help or inform my predictions. Last year, after I picked somebody (Carlos Zambrano, maybe? I forget...) to win the NL Cy Young Award, I got an e-mail from a Padres fan who told me, correctly, that I'd overlooked Jake Peavy. Of course, Peavy went ahead and won the thing. So any help like that would be more appreciated this week than next. I'll check Ed P's blog for comments on this post and see what you've come up with.

Meantime, let's get excited. Opening Day in baseball is one of the greatest days of the year. Like I told you earlier, I'll be opening with the Mets and Johan Santana this year, but I always love to hear about people's Opening Day stories. Any big plans? Great memories? Anybody out there skip work to go to the game, or just to watch it?

Let me know. As I said, I'm going to miss you guys, though if they don't hook me up with my own nj.com blog, I have a backup plan that might work. You'd just have to follow me to some other site.

We'll jump off that bridge when we come to it. For now, enjoy the anticipation. Next Monday can't get here soon enough for me.